Improvement m spark-arresters



j WWW Invenor:

NFETERS, PHOTD-LITHOGRAPHER, WASHINGTON, D c,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JACOB HOVEY, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT lit SPARK-ARRESTERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent N o. 38,111, dated April 7, 1863.

To @ZZ whom it may concern.-

Beit known that I, J Aeon HovEY, of Clevelind, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented new and useful Improvements in Locomotives; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and complete description ot" the construction and operation ot' the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this speciication, in which- Figure 1 is a front view. Fig. 2 is a side view. Fig. 3 is a vertical section of Fig. 2, and Fig. 4 is a detached section of the screen.

Like letters refer to like parts.

The nature of my invention relates to dividing the smoke-box into two compartments transversely, by means of a wire-gauze dial phragm placed immediately above the lues, and to the spark-deilector making part of said diaphragm. Theexhaust-pipepasses through the diaphragm, terminatingjust within or below the base of a straight smoke-stack, the result of these several arrangements being that the sparks are arrested upon the under side of the wire-gauze, and fallinto the bottom of the chamber, from whence they are discharged, While the gases are projected high into the air through the straight stack; consequently such sparks as are small enough to pass through the meshes of the sparkarrester or wire-gauze become extinguished before reaching the ground.

In the drawings, A represents the smokebox, and B B represent the iiues leading into the smokebox from the tire-box. Theforward end ot the smoke-box is extended about sixteen (16) inches farther than is customary, as shown at A', in order to give a more extended surface to the spark-arrester, while the bottom of the smoke-box is extended downward -below the dues, as shown at A". This may be formed into inclined. planes C D D for the purpose of facilitatin g the discharge of the cinders through the outlet E. This outlet E is closed and opened at pleasure by means of a valve, F, of any convenient form, and from which a cord or iron rod extends back to the cab.

H represents a wire screen, having meshes of from one-tenth of an inch to one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter, and constitutes the spark-arrester. This is placed across the smoke-box immediately above the fines B B, as shown in Figs. 1 and 3. This diaphragm or screen H is secured to the sides of the smoke-box, but immediately above the iiues. A detlecting-plate, H', stretches across from side to side for the purpose of deflecting the sparks forward into the extended portion A of the smoke-box, which, as before stated, is

about sixteen inches greater than in ordinary locomotives. The escape-steam pipe I passes through the screen or spark-arrester H, and discharges into the bottom of the stack J. The inside of this stack being straight and smooth, with no obstruction at the top, a rapid current of smoke and gas is produced upward, continuing some thirty or forty feet above the top of the stack. The screen H arrests most or the cinders, which fallback upon the inclined planes C- D D or bottom of the smoke-box, and can be discharged at pleasure by the means before described. Furthermore, the diaphragm checks the sudden 4draft of air through the re-box and fines, and while the draft produced by the exhaust is sufficient to insure a good combustion of the coal, it is not so strong as to draw up the cinders through the fines to any great extent.

In the use of the ordinary smoke-box and stack, some eight hundred pounds of cinders have been collected in the smoke-box in running about two hundred miles, while with my improvement, with the same engine and same kind of coal, (bitu1ninous,) in running over the same distance, only about forty pounds of cinders were collected, thus showing, in addition to an entire freedom of annoyance from smoke and sparks by the passengers, a saving of more than seven hundred pounds of fuel for the distance above named.

What I claim as my improvement, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The screen or diaphragm H in the smokebox A, arranged as and for the purpose specitied.

2. The deector H', when arranged as and for the purpose set forth.

JACOB HOVEY.

Witnesses:

J. BRATNERD, W. H. BURRIDGE. 

